How to make a connected watch? The normal approach is to copy Apple - but Apple Watch is not a watch, it is a connected device on the wrist. There is a big differenceGuy Sémon, Tag Heuer

Guy Sémon, Tag Heuer general director, is talking to WIRED about smartwatches -- and he's being surprisingly open. His company has just announced a partnership with Google and Intel to launch a Swiss smartwatch running Android Wear -- but he has no idea if the potential sales are out there. "We don't know for the moment if the market exists," Sémon says in an exclusive interview with WIRED. "We are watchmakers, but we have to consider the connected watch because we had a bad experience in the past with quartz at the beginning of the 70s."

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In 1969, Seiko produced the Astron, the world's first commercial quartz wristwatch. The inherent accuracy and low cost of production resulted in what was known as the Quartz Crisis during that decade and led to Swiss watch industry employment collapsing from 90,000 in 1970 to just 28,000 in 1988. "If it is possible, I prefer to be safe. I don't know where this train is going, but what I do know is that I have to be on the train," Sémon confesses.

There were a number of smartwatch announcements at this year's Baselworld watch fair, but Tag's was arguably the most interesting -- despite it being the one where no physical timepiece was unveiled. Three super brands, one with exemplary horological heritage steeped in Swiss tradition, are coming together to combat the threat of the Apple Watch.

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WIRED spoke with Sémon about the thinking behind the venture. "How to make a connected watch? The normal approach is to copy Apple -- but Apple Watch is not a watch, it is a connected device on the wrist. There is a big difference. Why? Because this one

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[Sémon holds up the brand's new Carrera Heuer-01] looks good.

Better finishing, design. This is not an iPhone. You buy an iPhone and in three years you put it in the trash. But not a watch. You have to keep a watch." "Why would you spend a lot of money on a watch? Because it is absolutely emotional. A connected device is absolutely rational.

It's totally different -- the opposite. The challenge is how to connect both."

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Tag Heuer has thrown its lot in with Google and its Android Wear operating system dedicated to connected wearables, and confirms that the Tag smartwatch will be modelled closely on the new Carrera Heuer-01. "Apple gains about $20bn each quarter in profit. The total sales in Switzerland per year is about $20bn. It's impossible to fight against Apple -- and we are not Apple."

In response to this, Sémon states that the philosophy behind the Tag Heuer connected watch is that it will be a gate into the brand's "universe" and not so concerned with notifications. "It is not to get your push notifications from your phone, for messages, for email," Sémon says. "This is possible, of course -- and if you want to have your messages on your wrist you can buy a Chinese connected watch for $50 and it's OK. No, this system will be totally different."

Tag Heuer wants consumers to shun these now commonplace wearable features and use its coming smartwatch as an instrument to measure performance. "[Not just in racing] but in all sports. Football, surfing, and so on," he says. "As an example, you go to the Nürburgring race track, you drive four laps, and the watch will record the acceleration, the speed. You will upload your results to the cloud to share this with the rest of the Tag Heuer motor racing club."